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Carter Wrenn posted on June 29, 2009 17:50
From: Tim Rogers
Sent: Monday, June 15, 2009
To: NC Legislators
Subject: E-mail from Tim Rogers to Legislators
Dear North Carolina Legislator:
I want to share with you new information I have received since my last note (about the misleading chart HHS gave legislators, claiming 45% of the Medicaid patients receiving home care were ineligible).
That chart was based on reviews by CCME, a vendor to HHS. Friday, I had a note from Secretary Cansler stating he was informed several weeks ago – in a meeting with Senator Clary – the CCME percentages were wrong.
In addition, Thursday, we received information (attached) from HHS that the Department had decided, after receiving the study, not to notify even one of the 899 patients CCME said were ineligible that they would no longer receive care; it is also clear from the records we have received most of the patients continue to receive care with the Department’s approval.
HHS paid the vender (CCME) $1.29 million dollars for this study. As part of the study, HHS paid CCME a fee of $360 for every patient it reviewed. ($360 equals one-half the average cost of a month’s home care for a patient of $750.)
So, per the attached, HHS paid over a million dollars for the study, almost all of the patient reviews were reversed by the Department, then the Department gave the study to legislators knowing it was inaccurate.
As ever, thank you for allowing me to keep you informed.
Sincerely,
Timothy R. “Tim” Rogers, CEO
Assoc. for Home & Hospice Care of North Carolina
South Carolina Home Care Association
3101 Industrial Drive, Suite 204
Raleigh, NC 27609
919-848-3450
919-961-3555 cell
Member – State Health Coordinating Council – SHCC
Member – NAHC Board of Directors
Chairman – NAHC Forum of State Associations
[Read the rest of this article...]
Carter Wrenn posted on June 29, 2009 15:59
The NC State House restores part of Senator Berger's cut. In response, Senator Berger tries to cut the program...again! Read the release below:
For Immediate Release:
June 22, 2009
3101 Industrial Drive
Suite 204
Raleigh, North Carolina 27609
Phone: 919.848.3450
Toll Free (NC): 800.999.2357
E.mail: timrogers@homeandhospicecare.org
tracycolvard@homeandhospicecare.org
Senator Doug Berger: Close Down Home Health Care
Last Thursday night in the House-Senate Conference, Senator Doug Berger proposed to cut home care for Medicaid patients $77 million – a $55 million deeper cut than the budget the House passed. When the federal matching funds which would be lost are added to Senator Berger’s cut, he proposed slashing the home care program by $308 million or 85% – all but eliminating it.
At a minimum, Senator Berger’s ‘Health Care Plan’ puts the vast majority of the 36,000 patients currently receiving the service, who under state law each have to suffer from two disabilities to be in the program, at risk to lose their care.
“Let’s be clear,” said Tim Rogers, Director of the Association for Home & Hospice Care, “What Senator Berger tried to do would end the care – primarily – of elderly patients who suffer from two of six disabilities: Difficulties eating, bathing, walking, toileting, dressing or have incontinence.
“That is a measure of the pain in human terms.
“In addition, the only alternative left for these patients, once they can no longer receive care in their homes, would be to go into a Rest Home or Nursing Home. Those will be the only places they can go to get the care they need.
“Let’s measure the financial costs.
“Home care – on average – costs $9,000 per year per patient. In home care, the patient pays for his – or her – own food and lives at home.
“In Rest and Nursing Homes, costs range between $21,000 - $48,000 per year – the government pays for each patient’s lodging, food, medications and other needs 24/7 and, naturally, it costs more.
“Cutting an inexpensive program and driving people into an expensive one makes no sense. Eliminating home care won’t save the taxpayers a penny – it will cost them millions to care for the same patients.
“If all the patients who would lose their care due to Senator Berger’s plan end up in institutional care – it would cost taxpayers over half a billion dollars.
“Under Senator Berger’s plan no one wins except Rest and Nursing Home operators – and they can’t cope with the possibility of 36,000 potential new patients.
“We have done our best to reason with Senator Berger. We have told him these facts. But it seems the more we talk to him the madder he gets – we feel like we have run head-on into a stone wall. Hopefully, when the Senate and House return Monday, calmer minds will prevail – and stand up for these patients – in both the legislature and the Department of Health and Human Services.”
Sincerly,
Tim Rogers, CEO
[Read the rest of this article...]
Carter Wrenn posted on June 29, 2009 14:48
Some people never seem to learn and Democratic Senator Doug Berger is looking like a case in point.
State Senator Berger, who back in his student days at Chapel Hill signed up for something called the ‘Democratic Socialists of America,’ is now head of the Senate Sub-Committee on Health Care. The other day, after he passed a bill in his committee to cut Medicaid Home Care 60%, a lady wrote criticizing him and Senator Berger just fired a shot back telling her he knew all about home care – because as a lawyer in the James Scott Farrin law firm he’d sued home care agencies.
There’s also a story going around the legislature that when another lady supporting home care disagreed with him, Senator Berger let her have it too, saying, You keep this up and I’ll cut it even more.
This is not what journalists would call objective ‘verification’ of that story but, in fact, last Thursday night when the House-Senate Budget Conference met Senator Berger tried his best to cut home care $77 million – or 85%.
The Committee haggled for a night and part of the next day, one legislator was overheard saying Berger proposed the cut to show the Home Care and Hospice Association – his most vocal critic – the legislature had the power to eliminate their entire program, then the Senators and Representatives went home for the weekend.
Politicians pursuing vendetta’s is seldom a pretty sight.
But, more to the point, what would Senator Berger’s vendetta cost taxpayers?
Thirty-six thousand patients receive Medicaid home care. By law to qualify each has to suffer from a minimum of two disabilities: Difficulties eating, walking, bathing, dressing, toileting or incontinence.
What happens to these patients if Senator Berger cuts their home care?
They have two choices: They can go into a Rest Home or a Nursing Home.
Now, do the math: In home patients provide the roof over their own heads, as well as their own food – and the government provides a nurse or nurse’s aide for 1-3 hours each day. If the same patient moves into a Rest or Nursing Home the government must provide their lodging, food, transportation and care 24 hours a day.
So caring for patients in Rest Homes and Nursing Homes, naturally, cost taxpayers a lot more money than home care – according to the State Department of Medical Assistance (SFY2007 Report) at least five times more.
So if Senator Berger sticks to his guns – and succeeds – his plan could cost taxpayers around $385 million a year.
It’s hard to imagine who, other than a former ‘Democratic Socialist,’ would conclude it makes any kind of sense to drive patients out of a cheaper program and into a more expensive one – but that seems to be Senator Berger’s logic.
The Democrats in the General Assembly, what with their voting to raise taxes and voting to build a deluxe $25 million fishing pier, have handed Republicans plenty of political gifts lately – but Senator Berger has achieved the ‘hat trick.’
Raising taxes is sure to make the Republicans in his district mad.
Cutting elderly patient’s home care is sure to make Democrats mad.
And costing taxpayers $385 million a year is sure to make Independents mad.
I guess about the only people in Senator Berger’s district who aren’t mad must be the nursing home operators – who’ve got to be shaking their heads unable to believe their good luck.
[Read the rest of this article...]
Carter Wrenn posted on June 29, 2009 14:01
Senator Doug Berger’s blooper is going on television.
When Senator Berger passed a bill to cut the home care of 20,000 elderly Medicaid patients, he said he had a study that proved they weren’t eligible for care. Period. Well, it turns out, over a month ago the Department of Health and Human Resources told Senator Berger he had his facts all wrong – that the ‘study’ didn’t show what he said.
Next, when The Association for Home and Hospice Care pointed out his mistake, Berger gave them a pretty blunt answer;—he tried to cut the elderly and disabled patients’ care even more – a whopping $77 million. All but eliminating the program. And leaving even patients Berger, himself, has acknowledged are eligible without care.
Finally the Home and Hospice Care folks, who have been working with other legislators to straighten out Berger’s mistake, decided the people who most needed to know what Berger is doing – are the voters in his district. So they’re taking to the airwaves and here’s their first television ad “Hard to Believe:’
[Read the rest of this article...]
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Previous Blogs & Articles
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Suite 204
Raleigh, North Carolina 27609
Phone: 919.848.3450
Toll Free (NC): 800.999.2357
Cell: 919.961.3555
Email: TimRogers@homeandhospicecare.org
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From: Tim Rogers [mailto:timrog]... | | A Surprise... by Carter Wrenn | | Mid-June 2009: DHHS response to a Public Information request brought another surprise. Over six weeks before the request, DHHS notified Senate Fiscal Research Staffer, M... | | From TalkingAboutPolitics.com by Carter Wrenn | | Senator Doug Berger's Blooper
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For the past month, State Senator Doug Berger has been telling just about anyone who’ll listen that 45% of the patients who get home care ser... | | Email to Senator Doug Berger from DHHS by Carter Wrenn | | DHHS to Senator Doug Berger: The review does not show that home care patients are ineligable. Because the 'reviews' did not include a physical examination of a single patient. Re... | | E-mail from Tim Rogers to NC Legislators - CCME Percentages Inaccurate per Secretary Cansler by Carter Wrenn | | From: Tim Rogers
Sent: Monday, June 15, 2009
To: NC Legislators
Subject: E-mail from Tim Rogers to Legislators
Dear North Carolina Legislator:
I want to share with you new information I h... | | The NC State House restores part of Berger's cuts...Berger Retaliates! by Carter Wrenn | | The NC State House restores part of Senator Berger's cut. In response, Senator Berger tries to cut the program...again! Read the release below:
For Immediate Release:
June 2... | | From TalkingAboutPolitics.com by Carter Wrenn | | Berger’s Blooper – Chapter II
June 23, 2009
Some people never seem to learn and Democratic Senator Doug Berger is looking like a case in point.
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Carter Wrenn posted on June 25, 2009 11:19 pm
Senator Doug Berger’s blooper is going on television.
When Senator Berger passed a bill ... |
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